Check out the Dramatic increase in Oil Industry Explosions on the Graph at this Site I suppose one explanation could be aging equipment or deferred maintenance, and of course theres the possibility of Y2K problems since the first of this year, but the upward spike starts around July of 1998?

Anyone out there have a clue or care to speculate? I'd appriciate your comments on this.

-- Zguy (questions@oilshortages.com), January 29, 2000

Answers

Your links don't work.

-- slza (slzattas@erols.com), January 29, 2000.

Hmmm...maybe things have increased so much for 1999 'cause the guy is counting transformer explosions, chemical spills, and factory problems as "oil industry" explosions? Read the list.....follow the root sources...

Bad data = bad stats, gonna need a more credible source, maybe a scientific study?

-- FactFinder (david@bzn.com), January 29, 2000.

Link

-- Zguy (questions@oilshortages.com), January 29, 2000.

Looks a lot more like an increase in reports than an increase in events.

-- No Spam Please (nos_pam_please@hotmail.com), January 30, 2000.

Yes, definitely, a scientific study run by .gov and funded by the US taxpayer. Should add a good hundred employees to the .gov payroll and be completed in no more than ten years.!!

Let's set up a committee to look into this and have them report back, say next year. The DOE can then begin to set up the scientific study department and be ready to roll in no more than 2 years.

Full steam ahead !!

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), January 30, 2000.

This chart has been toroughly debunked, both here and in the year2000 newsgroup. The author who doesn't want to IMPLY anything by drawing this b.s. graph--no, sirree, not drawing any implications here, just repoting some interesting observations--has failed to update this data with the wealth of new information that has been provided.

For instance, you will find in the year2000 newsgroup references (with links) to refinery incidents in 1997 that the graph does not include, which would DOUBLE the incident count for that year (one of the ones the graph missed was an explosion in India that killed 39 people--yet transformers, chemical spills, whatever, are all included from this month).

It's utter garbage. The graph is at least kind enough to list all the events it includes. Read them.

-- foo (foo@bar.com), January 30, 2000.